answersLogoWhite

0

The drilling rig is a semi-submersible platform (not anchored to the sea floor). It has been destroyed by fire and is lying in 5,000 feet of water at the ocean's bottom. As it plunged into the ocean, it drifted and is a good distance (I believe around 1,400 ft) from subsea wellhead. The drilling platform will never be repaired.

User Avatar

Wiki User

15y ago

What else can I help you with?

Continue Learning about Engineering

What is the deepest oil well?

Answer34,200' in the Gulf of Mexico35055 feet in Gulf of Mexico plus 4000 feet of water above the sea floor. From Associated Press article by Chris Kahn Sept. 3, 2009 in Topeka Capital-Journal


What are some ways that they have tried to clean the oil spill?

The US Coast Guard has used several tactics to clean the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. One of them involves using containment buoys to trap the oil from spreading. Another way they have tried to clean it up is using ultra absorbent hair-like ropes that soak up the oil.


Why is it difficult to clean up the Gulf of Mexico's oil spill?

Oil spills are difficult to clean up in general. If oil spills from a tanker, the most oil than can go into the water body is the volume of oil in a tanker. However in this case, the well is producing approximately 5,000 barrels of oil per day (210,000 gallons). So, even mobilizing everything available to control the spill, oil booms, skimmers, use of dispersants, controlled burns, more oil keeps leaving the well. The large canopy that they are preparing to put over the well is not the final solution, but it should reduce the rate of oil that is entering the gulf waters. It should mitigate the damage. It is necessary to kill the blown out well, and BP is in the process of drilling two relief wells.


Can you shut off an oil well by squeezing a pipe shut?

Yes, an oil well can be "shut off" by the use of a device that has a hydraulic ram that can crush and seal a pipe (or simply shut a valve) to secure a wellhead. The so-called "blowout preventer" is such a device, but in the case of the current disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the device failed (owing to a failure to replace a battery, as one report had it).


What is mist lubrication system?

Mist lubrication system is that, in which the lubrication of a bearing is done by the oil in the form of oil mist.